sadoldgit

I wonder if we shall be seeing Musk in a suit and tie in his future visits to the Oval Office?

It seems like only a couple of days ago that you were asking for examples of the conspiracy theories that you spout and, as if by magic, you spew up another one. You seem to get some kind of inner self confirmation in your belief that only you are smart enough to know the truth. You are not. You are a deluded fool who goes out of his way to find “truths” that fit in with your ‘I’m the only one smart enough to see what is really going on’ shtick. The sad thing is you will not walk away from this thread and think maybe they have a point. You will just see it as further confirmation of your great insight and lack of conformity. You really are quite thick.

Christ you are starting to sound like the usual suspects again. You are badgering me for answers that I don’t have and neither do you. I have made some suggestions off the top of my head as I am giving you the basic respect of a response. There are plenty of well informed people out there giving plausible suggestions of where the money could come from. I have given an opinion as a layman. If I had more time I would point you in the direction of some proper informed arguments - I suspect Rory Stewart would be a good place to start.

I have responded time and again. You have had my answers and you know full well that I can’t give that kind of detailed answer without being a part of the Government’s cabinet with all of the information at their fingertips. Why can’t we just agree to disagree. My point stands, the money needs to be found. There are a number of different ways to find it. I expect the LibDems will have a few ideas.

It depends on where the cuts are made, how many are made and how deep they are. In the previous austerity programme wages didn’t move and went down in real terms. Wages are currently going up.

I would gladly answer if I was an economic expert and had all of the figures of governmental department budgets and spending plans at my fingertips. Sadly I am in no position to answer but as said before, raising taxes in some areas could be an option.

Why single out India? I know it is an easy win, but I did supply a list of other countries who are really struggling. Don’t forget also that we are still providing aid to Ukraine and the Palestinians. The other day I read a statement from Ms Dodds that outlined the new measures that Labour were supporting have increased the foreign aid (development) funding after it had been cut under the previous Tory government. It made for interesting reading and I wish I could find the link. Non of this nonsense about condoms and the crap that Musk spouts on about. She sounded really proud to be heading up the programmes and I can see why she felt the need to resign when having the rug pulled from under her feet. As before, given the current situation I completely agree that we need to increase spending on defence and a decision has been made which we will all live by.

But it isn’t austerity is it? As I have said before the money has to be found from elsewhere. Perhaps if Labour spelt out the options and asked the country if we would be prepared to pay another 1p on our taxes they might, on this occasion, support higher taxes? Again as I have said before, we all want better roads, transport systems, defence capabilities etc but nobody wants to see their taxes go up, but who pays for these things if we don’t? The tax thresholds are well overdue a review. It could be done without effecting the least well off and putting more of the burden on those who can afford it. I know we hear that any party talking about raising taxes is signing its own death warrant, but until we as a country learn to hear and accept hard truths, we are always going to be held at the behest of the populists, like Farage and the current Tory leader. Starmer doesn’t want to go near taxes or the shambles that is Brexit because he fears the rise of Reform. Reform think that Trump will do a favourable deal with Farage and that is all they have, that and whipping up hate for foreigners. Trump will have Farage for breakfast. There are many areas of foreign aid that will come back to bite us in the arse if cut funding. We don’t have grown up discussions about them. All we get is the gullible parroting of shit people read on Musk’s propaganda machine.

Will your next user name be ElonMusk69?

It isn’t ducking the question. The simple fact is that those are not the only choices. I did say earlier that the money has to be found from somewhere. It is entirely possible to reduce every departmental budget and not just put the whole weight on one department for example.

It isn’t two choices though egg. There are other places where cuts could be made. The trouble is there are good cases not to make cuts anywhere else too. That is why I said earlier we need to rethink taxes. As for this. People don’t want migrants in small boats coming here but also don’t want to spend money making their countries better so they don’t need to leave.

Read this and tell me you are ok with more children suffering. It’s ok if they aren’t our children, is that it? https://www.context.news/socioeconomic-inclusion/britains-foreign-aid-where-does-the-money-go

What about Ebola prevention in Africa? Perhaps you are ok with Musk stopping that too? You are another one who buys into Farage’s rhetoric but fails to look into the whole picture. Talking of Farage, what does he do now? He has spent years excusing Trump’s behaviour. How is he going to pass this latest episode off? Just a bit of locker room banter? Don’t take what he says literally? What does he do? Stay loyal to Trump or stand by Ukraine?

Yes, you said that before and it was just as unlikely then given it is Trump. War is not business, it is war. He wouldn’t know that because he bottled out of the Vietnam war. As for foreign aid, if you bothered to listen, Russia and China constantly fill the vacuums that we leave and their economic influence spreads. You are probably ok with that. If the West provides support to war torn countries people are more likely to stay rather than make their way her in small boats. You won’t get that from listening to Farage so you probably haven’t given that any thought.

As I said, it is better to listen to those who know what they are talking about.

I couldn’t agree more, but any mention of rejoining is cryptonite politically here at the moment thanks to Farage and the far right Tories who still preach that Brexit was a good idea.

Fox News for the Faragist fan boys.

I am old enough to remember when teams hated coming to The Dell and I always expected a good result. For too long now we seem to be an easy 3 points at home, let alone away.

Musk looks more like a nerd than Zelensky but Trump seems to find that look ok. Forget the dress code, Zelensky has more integrity in his little finger nail than Trump, Vance and Musk have put together.

It’s in incredible. Trump has only been back in power for a few weeks but already he has been more of a useless asshole than he was in his first term. What is freaky is that while we are waiting for the final series of The Handmaid’s Tale, it is beginning to look like the start of the story is about to begin.

It has been intimated that Trump will not comply with the US commitments to supply Ukraine with what has already been agreed to help them continue to fight over the next few months. If that is the case I hope that Europe tells Trump to GFH.

Having seen it again, yes. I think we are seeing the break up of NATO. Trump is more interested in doing deals with Putin than working with the UK and the EU. Putin will be loving this and as you say, it was probably orchestrated to suck up to him. Not looking good.

I have just seen the bit where he was asked about not wearing a suit. What planet are these people on. He had made it clear for years that he will wear a suit when the war is over.

Zelensky had already been softened up by Trump’s earlier rhetoric about him being a dictator and having an approval rating of 4%. You could tell from his expression that he felt he was being used to show what big tough guys Trump and Vance are. Trouble is they would never dare treat Putin that way.

Got to feel gutted for the Ukrainians watching that on TV. Putin one side and Trump on the other. A perfect definition of being between a rock and a hard place.